Rich Hughes makes ‘Unlucky’ Portsmouth injury claim after what has happened
Rich Hughes has discussed the injury issues which have plagued Portsmouth so far this season while addressing an audience of supporters.
While on the panel at the Tony Goodall Fans’ Conference at Fratton Park held in late September, the sporting director admitted the club had been “unlucky” but acknowledged similar problems with competitors.
The minutes of the meeting, held with various supporter groups, were published on the Blues’ official website on Tuesday [8 October].
Hughes went into depth about several topics, including the injury record.
“We analyse everything carefully,” he said. “Of the 14 players we signed, four have suffered injuries. Mark O’Mahony and Jacob Farrell were both contact injuries. The Championship is a tough, physical division, and so it’s important that we train as we want to play – that means intense training sessions, which will naturally lead to more contact injuries.
“Ibane Bowat is the really disappointing one, but we completed a thorough medical, and he played 32 out of 34 games for his club last year – sometimes you just get unlucky.
“It can always feel like your club is disproportionately affected, but injuries do impact other clubs too. I watched Luton against Plymouth – they appeared to have four players go off injured.
“When we had three of our four centre-backs out – plus Jacob Farrell, which meant Connor Ogilvie couldn’t slot in and play there – that perhaps made our injury situation feel worse than it was. We’re moving towards the back end of our injuries now, and the strength of the team is improving.”
Portsmouth looking in slightly better shape
It could not have got much worse for Portsmouth on the injury front than right at the beginning of the season, when seven first-teamers were ruled out of the 3-3 draw at Leeds United.
Several new signings have, however, not made debuts thus far, including Bowat. whose long-term issue arose just days after passing his medical at Fratton Park.
Colby Bishop’s heart surgery came out of the blue following a routine pre-season check, and other more minor injuries have cursed the Blues so far.
These have included that of Callum Lang, who has been one of the rare examples of a player who has so far seamlessly stepped up to the Championship.
However, it has not been all bad, with Regan Poole and Tom McIntyre returning to fitness after their respective long-term absences, Josh Murphy and Farrell eventually recovering to begin their Blues careers, and Kusini Yengi will hopefully be raring to go by the end of the month.
In other Portsmouth news, Andy Cullen reveals a huge improvement in away end earnings at Fratton.
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